NCAA Women’s Final Four: South Carolina defense smothers Louisville in semifinal win

Standing close to the highest of the important thing, Louisville level guard Hailey Van Lith noticed a gap within the South Carolina protection.

The Cardinals have been trailing by 9 early within the fourth quarter on Friday night time, and with most every little thing else failing, Louisville’s main scorer and spark plug tried to make one thing occur.

Van Lith drove to her left, hoping to carve out a transparent path to the basket. However straight away, Brea Beal was on the scene. Utilizing her quickness and a six-inch peak benefit, the Gamecocks guard met Van Lith on the free-throw line and hounded her all the way in which to the ring.

Van Lith tossed up an off-balance runner that caromed harmlessly off the backboard and into the arms of South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston, who began a quick break that Beal completed on the opposite finish with a layup.

That trade typified many of the night time for the Cardinals, who misplaced 72-59 within the NCAA girls’s nationwide semifinal. The Gamecocks’ protection, among the best within the nation, proved to be an excessive amount of for Louisville, which averaged 72.2 factors per recreation this season however wilted underneath South Carolina’s stress and difficult matchups.

Beal and fellow guard Destanni Henderson pestered Van Lith all recreation, limiting her to only 9 factors on 4-for-11 taking pictures after she averaged 21.5 factors over the primary 4 video games of the NCAA Match.

“They did a very good job of constructing it laborious for me to even get the ball,” Van Lith mentioned. “They clearly clearly weren’t going to let me get touches. They principally face-guarded me the entire recreation. They did an excellent job of executing that.”

Louisville is not the one crew to buckle underneath South Carolina’s crushing protection. The Gamecocks completed the season rated third within the nation defensively, permitting simply 50.5 factors per recreation. They stepped up their efforts within the NCAA Match, smothering their opponents at a document tempo.

“I feel it’s only a mentality to have each single recreation,” Beal mentioned. “You possibly can’t simply flip it on and switch it off if you select to. … Particularly now, you simply must lock in and know what your job is to do offensively and defensively.”

Of their 79-21 victory over Howard within the first spherical, the Gamecocks gave up simply 4 factors within the first half — an NCAA Match first/second-round document, as was the 21 factors total allowed in a recreation.

South Carolina saved up the stress within the second spherical, defeating Miami 49–33. The 54 factors mixed have been fewest a crew had ever allowed within the first two rounds of the event, beating the earlier document by 17.

“We identical to to be disruptive, take the primary possibility away, the second possibility away after which have you ever play with a brief shot clock,” Gamecocks coach Daybreak Staley mentioned of her crew’s defensive method. “Not an entire lot of groups are tremendous environment friendly in low-shot clock conditions, so we attempt to put them in that, after which we rebound the basketball.”